By DEE-ANN DURBIN
AP Auto Writer
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Ford hopes the redesigned Fusion will finally trounce the Camry.
The Fusion has become Ford's
best-selling car since it went on sale in 2005, and it's one of the top
sellers in the country. But Ford hopes the sexier styling, improved fuel
economy and features like automatic parallel parking on the 2013
version will help it pass the perennial leader, the Toyota Camry.
Ford is enlisting "American
Idol" host Ryan Seacrest to introduce the redesigned sedan alongside CEO
Alan Mulally in New York's Times Square Tuesday. It also is holding
events in Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and on the lawn of its
headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.
The publicity blitz underscores
the importance of the Fusion to Ford, which is rolling out the car to
U.S. dealerships later this month. The midsize car segment is the
biggest in the U.S., making up half of all car sales so far this year.
It's also one of the most hotly contested. Three of the Fusion's biggest
rivals - the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima and Chevrolet Malibu - are
also new this fall.
Here's more about the 2013 Fusion:
PRICE: The Fusion starts at
$21,700, which is less than the current Camry and in line with the new
Altima and Accord. But the price rises quickly. A top-of-the-line Fusion
with Ford's automatic parking system, lane departure warning,
navigation and other goodies is $34,580. An Altima with similar features
is $31,950.
POWER: The base engine, a
2.5-liter four-cylinder that gets up to 33 miles per gallon on the
highway, is carried over from the old Fusion. But there are four new
engine choices: a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost that's expected to
get 37 mpg; a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost in its top-of-the-line
Titanium model; a hybrid that gets an industry-best 47 mpg in the city;
and a plug-in hybrid, called the Fusion Energi, which runs for longer on
the battery and should get the equivalent of more than 100 mpg.
EXTERIOR DESIGN: The Fusion has a
more aggressive look, borrowing the chiseled, aerodynamic profile of
Ford's other new cars, the Fiesta and Focus. Its shuttered grille is
gone, replaced by a diamond-shaped one at the end of a sharply creased,
pointed hood.
Ford wanted the car to have a
premium feel, so it took the extra - and more expensive - step of
embedding the Ford badge in the hood instead of attaching it to the
grille. Designer Chris Hamilton said the company wanted the car to look
like it was worked on by hand.
Ford also incorporated feedback
from global focus groups, since the Fusion will be sold all over the
world. It redesigned the headlights, for example, after Chinese
customers found them too sinister.
INTERIOR: The 2013 has more
rear-leg room thanks to thinner seats up front. Ford says it has used
better, softer materials. Among the options are Ford's Sync
voice-controlled entertainment system and its My Ford Touch dashboard
screen, which has had some glitches but it still cited by many customers
as the reason they buy a Ford, since the technology is far ahead of
some rivals.
OPTIONS: Options include a
lane-keeping system, which uses cameras to monitor whether a driver is
staying in his lane and alerts him if he swerves off course. There's
also a system that parallel parks the car automatically, a blind-spot
warning system and a cross-traffic alert monitor that beeps if traffic
is coming while the car is backing out of a parking space. Toyota only
offers a blind-spot monitor on the Camry. The 2013 Accord has
lane-departure warning and a forward collision warning system. Neither
has the automatic parking feature.
CHEERS: Analysts and fans were
wowed by the design when Ford showed the car at the Detroit auto show
earlier this year. The Fusion is likely to follow the success of other
recent Ford redesigns, including the hot-selling Ford Explorer SUV.
JEERS: The Fusion can get
expensive fast when buyers pile on options. It's unclear if Ford will
see much demand for the hybrid and plug-in hybrid, since sales of the
previous Fusion hybrid were anemic.
WHY IT MATTERS: The Fusion is
the fourth-best selling midsize car in the U.S. right now, at 182,000
cars through August, and it's a key moneymaker for Ford. It's a strong
new model but must duke it out in a hyper-competitive midsize segment.
Copyright
2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
